Month: July 2017

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was scheduled to fly to Jeddah Wednesday from Kuwait City where, despite temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius, he scored a first tentative victory for cool diplomacy in his push to resolve the month-long blockade of Qatar by its Persian Gulf neighbors. VOA’s Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has more on …

Read more “Tillerson Signs Pact With Qatar to Curb Terrorism Financing”

Environmentalists promote solar energy as an option to reduce pollution, but in places without a central electricity supply solar panels can be a practical solution. They are frequently used by nomads moving through the desert, and people living in remote villages. In recent years solar panels have come to serve as a source of energy …

Read more “Solar Panels Have Become Major Source of Energy in Ravaged Syrian Communities”

The Trump administration has removed Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab from two lists of approved vendors used by government agencies to purchase technology equipment, amid concerns the cybersecurity firm’s products could be used by the Kremlin to gain entry into U.S. networks. …

A senior U.S. general has said that the fight is “far from over” in Iraq despite the recapture of Mosul from Islamic State (IS) militants, and he sees no major reduction in U.S. troop numbers after the fall of the city. …

A U.S. Army soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan has been arrested on charges of providing material support to Islamic State extremists, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on July 10. …

A Kazakh citizen who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Russia after being convicted of plotting to kill President Vladimir Putin has reportedly asked for clemency. …

Armenia’s Golden Apricot international film festival has run into controversy as rights activists accuse organizers of censorship for scrapping part of the event that featured two films dealing with LGBT themes. …

Pentagon officials say they have no information to confirm reports that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Tuesday it has information confirming the death of the IS leader. “We learned of it today but we do not know when he died or how,” the monitoring …

Read more “Pentagon Officials: No Confirmation of Reports IS Leader Is Dead”

Austria’s foreign minister convened dozens of counterparts on Tuesday to overcome what he calls a “crisis of confidence” hobbling the work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.   A forum born of Cold War attempts to ease disputes through compromise, the OSCE must reach decisions by consensus. However, regional and international rivalries …

Read more “Foreign Ministers Meet on Europe’s ‘Crisis of Confidence’”

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday that she has to win a “battle of ideas” in Parliament and the country after losing her majority in last month’s election. In a speech both conciliatory and defiant, May urged her political opponents to contribute their “views and ideas” to help shape government policy. May spoke nearly …

Read more “Weakened UK Leader Theresa May Vows to Win ‘Battle of Ideas’”

The U.N.-backed Cambodian tribunal trying Khmer Rouge leaders for atrocities committed while they ruled the country acknowledged Monday that only a handful of former high-ranking officials will face justice for their crimes. The tribunal explained in a statement the dismissal in February of a case against Im Chaem, a middle-ranking Khmer Rouge district chief whom …

Read more “Khmer Rouge Tribunal Explains Limits on Prosecutions”

Severe food crises are growing in Kenya and Somalia, as the Horn of Africa continues to receive below-normal rainfall, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. The hunger-tracking group says 2.9 million people in Kenya and 3.2 million in Somalia are experiencing Phase 3 or higher on the network’s five-tier warning scale, with Phase …

Read more “Food Crises Getting Worse in Somalia, Kenya”

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has canceled plans to start flying to destinations in Ukraine, saying the main airport in the capital, Kyiv, had not honored terms agreed earlier this year. …

As Georgia seeks to pressure the international community to respond robustly to attempts by its breakaway Republic of South Ossetia to encroach on its territory by shifting border markers, a new political crisis is building in its other breakaway region, Abkhazia, where the opposition has repeatedly called for the resignation of de facto leader Raul …

Read more “Caucasus Report: Abkhazia Heads Into New Political Crisis”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Kuwait, in an effort to help resolve the impasse over the blockade of Qatar by its Persian Gulf neighbors Tillerson is also due to visit Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week. Tillerson met Monday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a visit Sunday to Ukraine. Before …

Read more “Tillerson Shuttles to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Try to Break Impasse”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi formally declared victory over the Islamic State (IS) on July 10 in a speech on state television, marking the biggest defeat for the group since it declared a caliphate three years ago. …

The president of Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission said on Sunday that a vote to replace President Joseph Kabila will probably not be possible this year, violating a deal that let Kabila stay on past the end of his mandate. Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his second elected term in …

Read more “Congo Election Head: Presidential Vote Unlikely This Year”

U.S. President Donald Trump late on July 9 stepped back from his proposal to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin to establish a cybersecurity unit to prevent hacking and election meddling after he received blistering criticism from his own party …